New Cancer-fighting Virus A World First

[DeSwiss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Q-bnZRD9E">VIDEO: New Cancer-fighting Virus A World First

Canadian scientists say they have developed a virus that can attack cancerous tumours without harming the rest of a patient's body.

The team at Ottawa's Hospital Research Institute hope the breakthrough could provide a new and effective weapon in the fight against the disease.

Al Jazeera's Tarek Bazley reports.

[applegrove]

1. And who says a universal health care system cannot do excellent research too.

[MADem]

5. They've done an excellent job running some of the trials.

The virus, however, was developed in Woburn, MA.

[applegrove]

6. Thanks for the clarification.

[MADem]

7. To give full credit, some of the research was done in UK as well.

The heavy lifting happened in Woburn, though.

[Historic NY]

2. Wonder if they would take a person in trials??

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. You can look in here but I didn't see it "yet".

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/index-eng.php

[MADem]

4. They already have. They'll be doing more, too.

That is how they know the drug has promise.

This research actually started, and the virus was created, in Woburn MA, at a company called BioVex. Biovex was bought (for a massive sum) by AMGEN out of California, and funding obtained from South Korea, China and a couple of other investors. The trial work was moved to Canada; they may be doing trials elsewhere but they aren't releasing that data if that is happening.

Scientists have been intrigued for decades with the idea of using viruses to alert the immune system to seek and destroy cancerous cells. That interest has taken off in recent years as advances in genetic engineering allow them to customize viruses that target tumors.

The field received a boost in January when biotech giant Amgen Inc agreed to pay up to $1 billion for BioVex, the developer of experimental cancer-fighting virus OncoVex. But the only "oncolytic virus" so far approved by a regulatory agency is for treatment of head and neck cancer in China.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, scientists at institutions including the University of Ottawa and privately held biotech company Jennerex Inc said a small, early-stage trial of experimental viral therapy JX-594 found that it consistently infected tumors with only minimal and temporary side effects.

The experimental virus will next be tested in a mid-stage trial of patients with liver cancer....


http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre77u4nc-us-cancer-virus/